The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale was full of tense character development and teases of next season’s Battle of the Gullet, but one scene looked forward even further. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) spent most of Season 2 in Harrenhal having strange visions, possibly spurred on by the mysterious Alys Rivers. He’s seen a young Rhaenyra, his late brother Viserys, and even his mother, Alyssa, who passed when he was a child.
In the season finale, those visions culminate in a premonition that flashed forward over a century and convinced Daemon to bend the knee to his wife Rhaenyra after spending weeks contemplating his own rise to power. According to House of the Dragon’s showrunner, one of the vision’s most powerful images has a deeper meaning viewers may not have considered.
In a press conference reported on by Collider, showrunner Ryan Condal discussed the most shocking cameo in Daemon’s vision: Daenerys Targaryen, Daemon’s sixth-great-granddaughter and protagonist of Game of Thrones. He sees her from behind with three baby dragons; to the viewer, it’s obviously Daenerys, but Daemon has no idea who she is. So who does he think he sees?
“That could be his future daughter with Rhaenyra who has three dragons born,” Condal said. “He doesn't know, but he is sensing that this was something that was shown to me for a specific reason.”
This is a curious explanation, as the only daughter Rhaenyra will ever give birth to is Visenya, the malformed, stillborn child of Season 1. But Danaerys is a descendant of Rhaenyra; it just takes a few generations.
The vision also has implications surrounding the Azor Ahai prophecy that’s haunted both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. “Rhaenyra is already kind of running with this idea of the prince that was promised,” Condal said. “If Daemon also believes that that is Rhaenyra, as we've seen him say to her in High Valyrian in Episode 8, there's a very interesting thing that can be done with his interpretation of that reality as we move forward. So, for that reason, I think it was important that it was Daenerys, the image.”
Condal insists House of the Dragon won’t imply a true interpretation of who the prophecy is ultimately about, but this reveal shows how House of the Dragon’s ongoing theme of prophecy and destiny can affect characters’ decisions, regardless of whether their interpretations are correct. Immediately after seeing Daenerys with her dragons, Daemon saw Rhaenyra wearing the crown. Whoever is the Prince (or Princess) That Was Promised doesn’t really matter, because Daemon saw what he wanted to see — a reason to stand behind Rhaenyra as she enters the next stage of the Dance of Dragons.
